Responder Mode
"I'll just answer this real quick."
You stay reachable, even when you meant to be off.
What you'll practicePausing long enough to decide whether a reply is needed right now, and protecting your best thinking time from interruptions.
Re-engiNEAR Your Brain™ · Enrollment is open
You've seen your pattern. Now learn what to do with it.
Keep the strengths that got you here, and lower what they cost your focus, patience, and energy.
In The Hidden Cost of Holding It All Together, you saw the Performance Paradox in action: the strengths behind your success become automatic habits, and over time those habits wear down the focus and energy your performance depends on. You also found the pattern that shows up most in your week.
Re-engiNEAR Your Brain™ is my neuroscience-based program for the next step. It teaches you four skills, Notice, Expand, Anchor, and Recover, so you can use those strengths by choice instead of on autopilot.
See the two ways to joinAll modules open when you enroll · Printed playbook and workbook included · 14-day refund window
Teaching mental health to 2.4M YouTube subscribers · As seen on CNN, HLN & The Mel Robbins Podcast · Author of Why Am I So Anxious?
Start with what you found
Whichever mode leads for you, the program meets you there.
You don't stop being responsive, responsible, prepared, or driven. You learn to catch the habit earlier and decide whether this moment needs it.
Load-Bearer Mode
"If I don't handle it, it won't get done."
You pick it up before checking what you can carry.
What you'll practiceSorting what you own, what you can only influence, and what you can set down, before you pick it up.
Scanner Mode
"Let me think through what could go wrong."
You keep preparing after you've done enough.
What you'll practiceNoticing when preparation has stopped adding anything, and resetting so your mind can rest.
Engine Mode
"I'll rest when this is finished."
You push past what you need, and the finish line keeps moving.
What you'll practiceReading which of your Four Tanks is lowest, and choosing recovery that refills what you actually spent.
In Module 0, the High-Functioning Self-Assessment shows which modes stand out most in your answers, so you begin the program with your own pattern in front of you.
What changes
From Performance by Endurance to Performance by Design
Performance by Endurance means relying on effort and pushing through. Performance by Design means setting up your days so your brain has what it needs to keep performing.
Right now
With NEAR™
You notice the cost only after it shows up in your mood, thinking, or energy.
You catch your personal drain pattern earlier.
You react to whatever demands your attention next.
You create space between a trigger and your response.
Your deep thinking gets whatever time is left over.
You protect your deep thinking and decide where your attention goes.
You rely on discipline and pushing through demanding days.
You plan margin, transitions, and guardrails into those days.
You rest after you're depleted, and the rest doesn't match what you spent.
You match recovery to what was actually depleted.
The NEAR™ framework
Four skills that work together
In the moment
N
Notice
Recognize how pressure first shows up in your body, thinking, and behavior.
E
Expand
Create space between activation and action, so you respond on purpose.
Over time
A
Anchor
Protect your attention and cut avoidable drain, so you have room for deeper thinking.
R
Recover
Identify what you've spent and restore exactly that.
At the end, you bring all four skills to one recurring pressure situation and create your Personal NEAR™ Plan. You take the NEAR™ Performance Under Pressure Profile at the start and again at the end, so you can compare the two.
Inside the program
Five core modules, plus a bonus module for work
Each core module has two short video lessons, 9 to 11 minutes each, followed by worksheets that apply the lesson to your own week. Plan on about 20 minutes of video per module, plus whatever time you want to give the worksheets. All modules open the day you enroll.
Module 0
Foundations
How a pattern that once protected you becomes an outdated instruction, and the Performance Paradox in more depth. You take the High-Functioning Self-Assessment, meet NEAR™, and take your baseline Profile.
Module 1
Notice
How your nervous system can register threat before you're aware of it. You identify your Body, Mind, and Behavior signals and find your earliest reliable tripwire.
Module 2
Expand
The response gap, Pause → Reset → Choose, and the 90-Second Circuit Breaker. Includes an optional bonus lesson, The Story Underneath the Feeling.
Module 3
Anchor
The Control Map for sorting what you own, influence, and release, plus a margin habit that protects your thinking during the week.
Module 4
Recover
The Four Tanks for matching recovery to what you spent, and the Three Rs (Rhythm, Rest, and Reflection) for making recovery last.
Bonus module
Workplace Activation
Two lessons on using NEAR™ at work: a shared language with colleagues that doesn't label anyone, and, if you lead people, how to make the practice possible on your team.
Program completion: A final lesson, Using NEAR™ Beyond the Course, brings all four skills together. You retake your Profile, compare it with your starting point, and choose the practice you'll keep using.
What you'll leave with
Your worksheets become your own reference set:
- Early-Warning Map
- Control Map
- 90-Second Circuit Breaker
- Margin Habit
- Response Chain
- Four Tanks and Three Rs Check
- NEAR™ Emotion Map and Appraisal Map
- Personal NEAR™ Plan
- Body · Mind · Behavior Inventory
- Workplace Shared Practice and Leadership Activation Plan
See where you're starting
Two assessments are included, so you work from your own answers instead of a general description. You can save your results as a PDF and come back to them.
Sample results. These are educational self-assessments for reflection, not clinical measures.
Your printed playbook and workbook
Both options include the printed companions, shipped to you. The Playbook goes deeper into what each lesson teaches. The Workbook holds the exercises, so you can work through them on paper alongside the videos.
Printed books ship to U.S. addresses. Outside the U.S., you'll receive the digital playbook by email, and your fillable workbook is inside the course.
What people say about learning with Dr. Marks
Strategies people put to use
Re-engiNEAR Your Brain™ Leadership Intensive
"She gave practical strategies participants could employ immediately to reduce their stress and improve their responses."
Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Hilton Central School District
Re-engiNEAR Your Brain™ Leadership Intensive
"Every day, I'm seeing principals and directors implement some of the strategies learned."
Superintendent of Schools, Hilton Central School District
Live training
"People are talking about what they learned, and most importantly, talking about what they can implement."
Founder of Traffic Sales & Profit
Choose how you want to learn
Two ways to join. Both include the full program.
Both options include:
- The full NEAR™ video program: five core modules and the program completion lesson, all open the day you enroll
- The High-Functioning Self-Assessment, the NEAR™ Performance Under Pressure Profile, and fillable worksheets
- Your printed companion playbook and workbook, shipped to you (U.S. addresses; outside the U.S., you'll get the digital playbook by email and the fillable workbook inside the course)
- The Workplace Activation bonus module on using NEAR™ at work
- Ongoing access, including updates, for as long as the program is offered
VIP Guided Implementation
$997 · one payment
For you if you want my help applying it to your real week.
Everything in Self-Paced, plus:
- Four live 90-minute group sessions with me on Mondays at 7:00 p.m. ET, starting November 30. Each one has a recap and time for your questions.
- A question form to send questions ahead of time, including when you can't make a session live
- Replays of every session for as long as you have course access
Self-Paced
$497 · one payment
For you if you prefer to work through it on your own.
- The full program, assessments, and worksheets
- Your printed playbook and workbook
- The Workplace Activation bonus module
Want live sessions later? You can join a future live group for $500.
Start Self-Paced, $497Try it for 14 days
Every module opens the day you enroll, so you can look through the whole program before deciding. If it's not right for you, email [email protected] within 14 days of purchase. We'll refund your purchase price minus $45 for the printed playbook and workbook, which are yours to keep.
VIP Guided Implementation$952 refunded
Self-Paced$452 refunded
What happens next
Your first few weeks
All modules open the day you enroll, and your books ship to you. Start right away and move at whatever pace your schedule allows. Enrollment closes Sunday, November 22 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
VIP Guided Implementation: session schedule
Live sessions run 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. ET.
| When | What's happening |
|---|---|
| Thanksgiving week (Nov 23) | Module 0: Foundations, on your own. Take the High-Functioning Self-Assessment and your baseline Profile. You'll have just finished your observation week, so you'll start with real examples. |
| Monday, Nov 30 | Session 1: Notice |
| Monday, Dec 7 | Session 2: Expand |
| Monday, Dec 14 | Session 3: Anchor |
| Week of Dec 21 | Session 4: Recover, program completion, and using NEAR™ at work. The date is tentatively Monday, December 21, and may shift around the holiday. |
If you fall behind, nothing is locked. The modules and every replay stay available.
Is this for you?
This program is for the one who holds it all together.
You're in a demanding role. You might lead a team, do high-stakes work, or run your own business. And you're often the go-to person at home too.
It's a good fit if:
- You're still performing well, but it takes more out of you than it used to.
- Your focus is more scattered, your patience is shorter, or it takes longer to recover.
- You find it hard to switch off after demanding days.
- You want practical tools to protect your thinking before something forces you to stop.
It's not the right fit if:
- You're looking for psychiatric treatment, therapy, diagnosis, or individual medical care. This is an educational program and doesn't replace any of those.
- You're in crisis right now. Please reach out to a licensed professional, or call or text 988 in the U.S.
- You need a certificate or continuing education credit.
Why I created this
Hi, I'm Dr. Tracey Marks.
I'm a board-certified psychiatrist, and for 25 years I've worked with capable, high-functioning professionals who hold everything together and quietly pay for it.
I created this program because I lived the pattern. My worst days weren't my longest days. They were the days packed with meetings and interruptions. By evening I was irritable and mentally full, and after 8 p.m. I felt like I'd fallen off a cliff. I was more than tired. I was cognitively overdrawn, and the way I structured my day was spending the thing I rely on most: my ability to think clearly.
Before medical school, I earned a degree in electrical engineering at Duke and worked as an information systems consultant at Andersen Consulting, now Accenture. So I look at performance as a system: What's the pattern? What keeps it going? What does it cost? NEAR™ came out of that way of thinking, and I'd love to walk you through it.
Board-certified psychiatrist · Author of Why Am I So Anxious? (Penguin Random House) · Teaching more than 2.4 million people on YouTube · Featured on CNN, HLN, and The Mel Robbins Podcast
Before you decide
Questions you may have
Which option should I choose?
Choose VIP if you want to bring your real situations to me and hear how others in the group are applying it. Choose Self-Paced if you like to work on your own and on your own schedule. You can add a later live group for $500.
December is busy for me. Is this a good time to start?
Busy weeks are where you'll practice. Each module takes about an hour, plus time to try things in your real days. Nothing is locked, so if the holidays slow you down, the modules and replays will be there when you're ready.
Do I need to have attended “The Hidden Cost of Holding It All Together”?
No. The program stands on its own. If you attended, you already have a head start, because your observation week feeds right into Module 0.
What if I can't attend the VIP sessions live?
Submit your question through the question form and watch the replay. Replays last as long as you have course access.
I'm not burned out. Is this still for me?
Yes. This isn't a burnout recovery program. It's for the stage before that, when you're still performing well but it's quietly costing you more. You'll learn to notice the slow wear on your focus, patience, and recovery while it's still early, and change how you work before it adds up.
I already know I need boundaries and rest. What does this add?
Boundaries and rest are part of protecting your capacity, but they're only one part. NEAR™ also covers catching your early warning signs, creating space before you react, directing your attention where it counts, and choosing recovery that matches what you spent. It also helps you understand why you keep pushing past limits you already know you need.
Do I need a neuroscience or psychology background?
No. I explain the neuroscience in clear, practical language and connect it to situations you'll recognize in your own life.
Is there a community or discussion group?
No. Neither option includes an online community, forum, or group chat. VIP includes four live group sessions with me, where you can ask questions and hear what others are asking, plus a question form and replays. Self-Paced is on your own, and you can join a later live group for $500.
How will I receive my playbook and workbook?
Your printed playbook and workbook ship to U.S. addresses within 1 business day of your order and usually arrive 2 to 3 business days after that. Outside the U.S., you'll receive the digital playbook by email, and your fillable workbook is inside the course. You'll find the video lessons, assessments, and worksheets in your online learning portal.
Is this therapy?
No. It's an educational program, not psychiatric treatment, psychotherapy, or diagnosis. Enrolling does not create a doctor–patient relationship.
Who do I contact with a question?
Email [email protected].
Your next step
Take what you noticed in the training and put it to work.
Your brain isn't the problem. The habits that helped you succeed may need to change as the demands on you grow. NEAR™ shows you how.
Enrollment closes Sunday, November 22 at 11:59 p.m. ET.